Osborne family patriarch dead at 92

Richard M. Osborne Sr. remembers his dad taking him and his siblings to Charlie’s Drive-in in Mentor when they were young.
“Whoever got closest to (guessing) the check got a dollar,” Osborne said. “You couldn’t look at the menu. You had to do it all by memory.”
It’s no wonder that the farmer-turned-mogul handed down his business acumen to many of his children.
But it’s only one of the many ways in which he will be remembered by his family and friends.
Jerome T. Osborne died June 21 at age 92. He had been in hospice care the two weeks prior. Osborne had suffered a heart attack in May, and recovery was slow, said grandson Rick Osborne Jr.
“He was at his house until about two weeks ago,” he said. “He was still making jokes and being grandpa up until the end.
“He lived a great life, and what a great man. … You never thought it would happen.”
Jerome Osborne’s business empire started with humble beginnings. He was born and raised on the Mentor-Willoughby border, where his father built Lost Nation Golf Course, and later lost it to the Great Depression.
His first business was custom farming in the 1940s. Rick Sr. said he was placed in a basket while his mother — Jerome’s high school sweetheart, Georgeanne — helped bale hay.
Next was the coal and feed business on Hart Street, and then the purchase of property at Routes 306 and 20 in Mentor — what would become the home of his Osborne Inc. concrete plant. It largely was moved to Grand River in the late 1980s, when the property was bought by developers and turned into Points East Plaza.
Along with wealth, Osborne acquired some large properties in the area, including land on which the Great Lakes Mall was to be built and a high-profile, 100-acre horse farm in Kirtland Hills that can be seen from Interstate 90.
His generosity left its mark throughout Lake County, including on Andrews Osborne Academy in Willoughby, Mentor High School football stadium, and a new fitness center at Lake Erie College in Painesville.
“Mentor is the great city it is today, in part, thanks to Jerry Osborne,” City Council President Ray Kirchner said. “His philanthropic endeavors have enriched many lives throughout Lake County. His legacy will live on for many decades to come.”
Jim Collins, editor emeritus of The News-Herald, called Osborne “one of the greatest businessmen in the history of our country.”
“He was an excellent planner, organizer, and he had dreams that the average person doesn’t know how to put into play, but he did,” he said.
And it all was accomplished with a high school diploma and a stuttering problem into early adulthood.
“My mother used to dial the phone for him and take his calls,” Rick Sr. said. “If my dad got turned down at the bank, my mom would call them up and chew them out, and they’d usually give him the loan.”
Osborne, known to many as “Ace,” remained a simple man in many ways, rarely wearing a suit and living in the same home since 1950, despite his financial success.
He loved to tell stories and he hated to lose, whether it was at harness racing, a sporting event or Parcheesi. That competitive nature also was passed on to his oldest sons, Jerry, Rick Sr. and Mike, all of whom became businessmen in their own right.
“We were his three biggest customers,” Rick Sr. said, adding that he never played favorites when they were bidding on the same job.
Along with the successes came hard times, from criticism to court cases to the untimely deaths of several family members. Among them was Georgeanne, who died of scleroderma in 1989. Osborne later married MaryAnn Childs, with whom he had two children.
He also is survived by numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren, Rick Sr. said.
“He was a one-of-a-kind,” he said. “When you think of him, you kind of get a grin on your face.”